Hope For the Best, Recover From the Rest
by blackindiaink
Summary: **In the process of editing this story. I will leave this version up but you can find the new one at my live journal under the name blackindia ink.**
1. Expectations and Those Pesky Elevators

A/N: My first Grey's fic. I felt compelled to write it and here is chapter 1. If you would be so kind as to drop me a line and let me know what you think, it would be greatly appreciated.

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We all expect things. There is this built in urge to want things to happen or go a certain way. We wake up every day and once that cloud of sleep is gone from our minds we get up and start processing what we want and what we need the day to give us. That is where the trouble starts because sometimes you are given things you don't want. You are given things that smash those expectations right back where they came from. So we deal with our nonreturnable gifts and we move to tomorrow with even greater hope because yesterday must have been a fluke and the universe must owe us something, right? We tell ourselves that no one can have this much bad luck and if something good would just happen we will be so thankful that we decide that the smashing thing won't be such a big deal. It all balances out in the end. That is the theory and sometimes it proves positive.

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Calliope Torres had expectations of this day. She was going to make it a good one. Nothing was going to touch her. She was finally back were she belonged and with the added bonus of having acquired the position that she deserved. She blessed that piece of inspiration that had guided her when she needed it most during her confrontation with the Chief. She had let her gut lead the way and now all of the stress she had put on preparing for that moment seemed a little overboard. Maybe Arizona was right once in awhile, she thought with a smile. She had been smiling a lot since that certain Peds surgeon had walked into the bathroom at Joe's and given her her second and best girl kissing experience.

She strode through the doors of Seattle Grace with her bag over one shoulder and a grin on her face. Things were going right for once and she wasn't going to let that slip away. She had a shiny, shiny future that she was finally in a position to fully embrace. Sure there had been tragedy recently. The loss of her ex-husband George and her temporary relocation to Mercy West. The toll these events might have taken was greatly lessened by the support she'd had from Arizona. Her girlfriend seemed to instinctively know just how to explain things and how to move around Callie's emotions while making her feel nothing but honest affection and support. She felt lighter and extremely happy now that she had Arizona. Everything was set to go, she had settled the status of her relationship, she was feeling a little better about George, and she had come through the beginnings of the merger in good shape.

She stopped in the lobby for a moment to take it all in. It was amazing how much you missed about a place when you saw it day after day. Now that she was actually looking around there were things that she had never noticed or had forgotten about. The place looked a million times bigger than it had before. That was a good thing. All the more to reconquer. She felt like an explorer returning home to reassert herself in the land that she had lost. She strode on through the lobby and around the corner to the bank of elevators that was home to a significant amount of the socialization that went on inside these walls.

The medical profession as a whole was one that forced it's professionals to spend much of their time together. This phenomenon was a tried and trusted fact that was supported by hours and hours of mingling in on call rooms, cafeterias and nurse's stations alike. Callie didn't have long to think on socialization because the "ding" that sounded indicated that she was about to be subjected to that weird elevator etiquette where two passengers both faced forward and ignored each other... unless you were somehow acquainted with whomever was getting on. It was human awkwardness at its finest.

She waited patiently for the doors to open and she looked down as she remembered that night Arizona caught up to her in the elevator and had healed that wound that had been ripped in her pride by asking her to dinner after she had initially rejected Callie's original invitation. The smile that tinged her face at thought of the surprise that she had felt and that fuzziness in her stomach that was caused by those blue eyes and that assured smile. As she reveled in one of the best recent memories she had made the doors slid completely wide open and the new passenger stood ready to board.

Moments ticked by and when Callie registered no movement from the person standing opposite her outside the elevator her gaze rose to meet another. Brown eyes gazed into blue and Callie's heart pounded into over drive. Her breathing quickened and the world turned a little upside down. Those were not the eyes she had been fondly remembering and that was definitely not a smile. Those were the eyes and the hard set lips of Dr. Erica Hahn. Just like that Callie's expectations for the day crashed down around her.


	2. And Another Shoe Drops

A/N Thanks for all the reviews. I am glad that you guys like the story so far. Erica fans, don't worry about my treatment of the character. I have no plans to deviate from the character that was presented on the show and I myself have problems with people who seem to demonize her. She was an interesting character and I will always have a place for her in my little Grey's world but I do love Arizona as well and plan to explore her character even more now that we have a little of her back story. Hope you like this one... let me know what you think.

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"Erica," was all she could get out. It was quickly followed by a quiet scoff. She felt her eyes roll and her posture change to a defensive stance.

"Callie?" Erica's eyes never wavered, which made things a little more difficult. It was clear she was going to stand her ground.

"Okay..." Callie drew a long breath in and walked briskly out of the elevator and past Erica's stony expression. She did not want to deal with this on her brand new day. She was going to pretend it didn't exist. That was not Erica Hahn back there it was a complete stranger. She walked down the hall with no idea where she was going her head was pointed at the ground in the hopes that anyone she encountered would ignore her passing. She looked up as she came to a turn in the hall. She reached a door she knew well and burst through. Here she was in the familiar and comforting lounge.

She sat at the table with a thick sigh and then she heard a throat clearing and felt eyes trained on her. Oops, she wasn't alone. Her back stiffened and she turned to see Arizona sitting a few feet away from her on the couch smiling back at her affection. She immediately relaxed and smiled back. She felt better just being in proximity to her girlfriend. She rose and sat in the spot that Arizona's hand had just patted. She stretched her hand out to find Arizona's. Once they were touching she felt she could process a little better. Arizona set her research aside sensing something was up.

"You will never believe who I just saw at the elevators."

Just as Arizona had opened her mouth to answer a rushed hand loudly pushed open the door and in stepped Erica spoiling the surprise. Arizona had no way of knowing who the woman was so she smiled pleasantly at the newcomer and looked back at Callie expectantly. When she saw that she was looking in vain she turned back to Erica. Something in Callie's stunned face made her feel protective. Her brow scrunched and she leaned a little closer to her girlfriend.

Erica looked down a the couple not knowing quite how to start. She had obviously been quickly replaced. Her emotions swirled around and instead of waiting for them to settled she decided to be proactive. She wanted this to be as comfortable as possible despite the anger that was flaring inside her. After all, it wasn't as if she was here to see Callie, even if she had seen it as an opportunity to fix things. Seeing Callie with this woman had derailed that plan.

"I want to get this out and then move on. I'm here to assist with a patient that was transferred here from Portland..." She desperately searched her mind for something further to say but to be fair the situation was a little overwhelming. She had practiced what she was going to say to Callie for days and now those days were going to waste.

She took one last look at Callie and Arizona's interlaced fingers and flew out the door the way she came. Usually she had the guts to stick out a conversation like that but Callie had been the one to open her eyes and her heart to what love meant for the first time and to see that she had obviously moved on when Erica still had the imprint of Callie stuck right on her heart hurt like a bitch.

Arizona had an inkling of who the person was who had just vacated the room but in these cases she always felt safer if she got a conformation before she went any further. She turned away from the door to find Callie with the heel of her hand on her forehead staring down at her shoes.

"Callie?"

"Yep, that was her," came the reply.

"Okay," Arizona said then stopped to gently remove Callie's hand from her forehead, "She's here and she'll leave and in the mean time we're going to be fine... and you have got to tell me this story."

Arizona had never pressed for the details. She had simply accepted that Hahn had vanished leaving behind a broken hearted woman who should obviously be treated better than she had been. The gossip had afforded all kinds of scenarios some of which were a little too out there to be believed. Here is what she did know. Erica and Callie had been in a disagreement over the issue of a heart that was supposed to have gone to one of Erica's patients. How Callie figured in personally, she had no idea.

"There's not much to tell. Awhile back Izzie fell for this patient and he needed a heart transplant. She did some pretty extreme things including cutting his LVAD wire to get him bumped up on the transplant list. Unfortunately, that meant that Erica's patient didn't get the heart. When she found out about it she blew a gasket and walked out. She couldn't believe that I wasn't just automatically siding with her."

Callie decided to flesh out the details at a later date when she wasn't feeling so blindsided and thankfully Arizona seemed to accept that.

"Wow," Arizona replied in amazement. "So, how do you feel?"

Callie looked up, her eyes wide. "Like my ex just showed up after vanishing into a parking lot never to be heard from again."

"Till now," Arizona said. She pulled on Callie's hands until she was laying across her dark blue scrub encased legs. She played with the dark hair now splayed across her lap and wondered what to say next. This one wasn't really in the manual.

Callie allowed herself to relax across Arizona's lap and wondered if it could all be a dream. That would be nice. She could feel those tears that had been building slide from her eyes to darken the blue of the scrubs below. She searched herself for a spark of that happiness and rightness that she had felt as she had entered the building. It wasn't coming.

One thing did come. She could not hide out here all day. She had work to do and so did Arizona. With a heavy heart she made herself sit up and look at her girlfriend.

"I'm going to be fine," she said without certainty. "I am going to go do my job and deal with that. I don't care if she's here or not. I'll feel better when I find some bones to crack."

"There ya go," Arizona praised, "I've got a surgery in about an hour but I want you to page me if you need me, okay?" She hoped that Callie would do as she said even if she felt she couldn't help much. It made her feel better to know what her girlfriend going through even if she couldn't be with her.

"Okay," Callie said. It felt a little better knowing that she could page Arizona even if she wasn't planning on interrupting her day unless it was absolutely necessary. It wasn't as if she could simply rush out in the middle of saving a little kid's life to rescue her from her big bad past.

Arizona leaned into Callie placing a kiss on her lips. She wanted it to convey how much she was hurting for Callie and how much she cared for her. She pulled back and went in for on last hug. She breathed in the scent of Callie's hair and resigned herself to leaving.

She rose and twirled her lab coat around and slid her arms into it. She made sure she had everything before she looked one last time into those dark eyes she loved. With a simple nod she left Callie to her day. Now she had to refocus. There was a nine year old with nerve disorder to attend to.

Callie left the room soon after and went up a floor to slide right back into work. After she was welcomed back and congratulated by several of her friends she grabbed a chart and went to work. Now things could get back on track for awhile. She went back to the elevator intending to ride down to the ER but quickly decided that the stairs were the safer of the two and took off for the door.

A few hours later she was back in her grove. She had pushed Erica to the back of her mind and she was concentrating on the patients and what they needed from her. That was until Bailey walked up to her and directed her to "the gentleman who could possibly be your father".


End file.
